Culture shock rating

Worried we’re going to shock your senses? Relax! We believe part of the fun of travel is immersing yourself in the destination and its culture, meeting the people, and learning what makes the place tick. We’ve got a wide range of tours with something for everybody. The cultural shock rating ranks how different the experience is from most Western cultures. But no matter the level, don’t worry, you’ll have a local, in-the-know guide with you every step of the way.

Low

Consider these tours your 101 intro to a place. Transportation might be private or a very comfortable public option, and the activities are usually visits to iconic sites and locations that are familiar to most Western cultures – but that will still give you fantastic insight into a destination.

Medium

Expect to rough it for parts of this tour, whether that’s on a packed public bus or in a local market off the tourist trail. There might be a few language barriers or unfamiliar cultural customs, and you’ll get an experience different from what you're used to at home.

High

You're out there in the global community! We’re going to take you down streets you’d rarely explore on your own, introduce you to local customs and languages, and take you for a ride in whatever transport is available. Get ready to take it as it comes, whatever comes. There might be a shock, but oh man, it’s worth it.

Low

Physicality

Physical rating

Worried our tours are too tough? Relax! From leisurely strolls to muscle-burning treks, we’ve got a wide range of tours with something for everybody. The physical grading gives you an idea of how much huffing and puffing you can expect on the tour.

Low

Slow and steady is all you need here. These tours have very limited physical activity, such as walking relatively flat streets, sites, or markets, and climbing in and out of the transport provided.

Medium

Not too hard, not too soft, these tours are just right! You can expect a bit of physical activity, but nothing overly challenging – perhaps walking up and down hills, riding a bike for up to 30 kilometers along mostly flat terrain, or jumping in a kayak for a gentle paddle on flat water.

High

Get ready for a workout! These tours are our most challenging and involve intense walking, hiking, kayaking, swimming, or bike riding. You could be making steep climbs by foot or pedal, or working your core in the water. We recommend you have a good level of fitness to join this tour.

Low

TOUR SNAPSHOT

“”

Overall a very good food walking tour, I got to try out some food which I normally wouldn't have, and going to an izakaya as a group was definitely good as we got to try several dishes.

Ms. Shierly N., Australia - 02 Nov 2018

Misa was an absolute delight. What a gem and so kind! We loved every minute with her and of course the wonderful food she shared with us.
Thank you so much.
Peter and Elizabeth

Mr. Peter L., Australia - 01 Oct 2018

The guide was really nice and informative. Both restaurants were good and cooking the Japanese pancakes was fun!

Mr. Mohamed Z., Egypt - 11 Sep 2018

Tour snapshot

Forget wasting your precious time getting stuck in awkward 'Lost In Translation' moments. Join a local guide on this Tokyo tour to experience the capital's busy, but oh so friendly and compact charms by night.

Highlights

Make like a local and savour legendary, iconic Tokyo flavours and dishes

Devour yakitori (skewered BBQ chicken) at a street yakitori bar

Enjoy Monja-yaki in the neighbourhood where it originated -MonjaTown (Tsukishima)

Visit a confectionery shop and learn about wagashi, a traditional Japanese sweet that changes with the season

Experience the clash of decades in the nostalgic atmosphere of modern, downtown Tokyo

Language: English

Inclusions: Local English speaking guide, public transportation, five assorted skewered yakitori, monja-yaki, one wagashi, two local drinks (sake, beer or soft drink).

Tokyo’s vibrant food culture is legendary, and is one of the many reasons why people flock to the Japanese capital. On this Tokyo tour enjoy the food culture of Tokyo from an ordinary businessman’s perspective, as well as the tradition of foods in everyday life of Tokyo.

Throughout your Tokyo food tour, your local guide will explain the history of food and places you visit, sharing with you their own personal experiences and food-related family traditions and customs during the tour.

We’ll begin our tour in Yakitori Alley, near Yurakucho, an area with many casual bar-style restaurants and the birthplace of yakitori, one of many Japanese people’s favourite appetizers. As many businessmen and women do after 5pm, we’ll enjoy a drink of sake or a local beer, then sample yakitori at one of the many local restaurants, each with their own “tare” (sauce) mixed with their secret ingredients.

After having a drink to go with the yakitori, we’ll travel to Tsukishima to visit “Monja” Street, where “Monja-Yaki” is said to have originated. Often compared with Okonomi-yaki in Osaka, Monja-yaki is a type of Japanese pan-fried batter with various ingredients. The ingredients are finely chopped and mixed into the batter before grilling. You’ll have the chance to watch your food being cooked, chat with the cook, and devour your Monja-yaki fresh from the hot plate. In true local style, you’ll use a small metal spatula for cutting it to pieces then chopsticks to eat with right from the grill.

We’ll take a quick stroll through Ginza, where you can find great confectionery shops and learn about the rich variety of traditional Japanese sweets — and, best of all, choose one to try! Usually made of rice and red beans, these sweets change based on the ingredients available at each time of year, and even their shapes are inspired by what you can find in nature during that season.

Your tour ends here but don’t forget to ask for tips on what else to see do and eat during your stay. Fancy a cool local bar or a karaoke place? We’d be happy to recommend our favourites so that your night can continue.Equally, your guide can help with directions back to your accommodation or you can return to the start point with them.

Your Trip: For your Urban Adventure you will be in a small group of a maximum of 12 people.

Confirmation of booking: If you have your voucher then your tour is confirmed. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting point. If you need to contact us for any reason please use the number on the voucher during business hours.

Additional Information: Legal age for drinking alcohol in Japan is 20 years old. Customers under 20 will be served non-alcoholic drinks only.

Child Policy: Children under age 12 are not permitted to join this tour.

Traveller rating

Rating summary

Ms. Shierly N. from Australia travelled on 02 Nov 2018

Overall a very good food walking tour, I got to try out some food which I normally wouldn't have, and going to an izakaya as a group was definitely good as we got to try several dishes.

Mr. Peter L. from Australia travelled on 01 Oct 2018

Misa was an absolute delight. What a gem and so kind! We loved every minute with her and of course the wonderful food she shared with us.
Thank you so much.
Peter and Elizabeth

Mr. Mohamed Z. from Egypt travelled on 11 Sep 2018

The guide was really nice and informative. Both restaurants were good and cooking the Japanese pancakes was fun!

Ms. Sophie J. from United Kingdom travelled on 11 Aug 2018

She was fantastic, super friendly and knowledgeable!

Ms. Elizabeth A. from Australia travelled on 31 May 2018

Great tour, Silvia our guide was very helpful and knowledgeable. Food was amazing and would recommend to friends and family.

Mr. William F. from Australia travelled on 28 May 2018

Eriko was a great tour guide and did a fantastic job teaching us about the culture of Tokyo while showing us around the city's restaurants. It was a great introduction to Tokyo and Japan as a whole!

Mr. lionel o. from Australia travelled on 19 May 2018

very good

Ms. Megan O. from Australia travelled on 05 Apr 2018

Excellent, friendly, knowledable.. and was so helpful in guiding me with the trains.. went beyond to help me out

Ms. Alice C. from Australia travelled on 18 Mar 2018

Kenji was a fantastic guide for my Tokyo after 5 tour, super accommodating for my vegetarian / vegan dietary requirements too. Loved every minute and saw and learned so much more than I could on my own. Thanks Urban Adventures!, Ill be back!

Mr. David H. from Australia travelled on 07 May 2017

Meg was extremely informative and very well organised - she knew what was possible to do and see in the timeframe available and also the best order to do it in. Meg is a very friendly person who enjoys her job. The things I saw and tasted I wouldn't have been able to do on my own. Big thumbs up to Meg - she also was very attentive to make sure everyone was enjoying themselves and would offer to help where-ever she could. I like trying all the different food and hearing about the history and culture and the Cherry Blossom sweet :).

Mr. Alexia R. from Australia travelled on 29 Apr 2017

Mariko the guide was great!

Ms. Laura F. from Australia travelled on 14 Apr 2017

The food tour with Meg was one of the highlights of my trip. She has such an interesting background and shared great stories about living in Tokyo. The yakitori place we visited was amazing; the mochi dessert was unique. I wasn't a huge fan of the okonomiyaki or monjayaki, but attribute that to personal taste (ie. others seemed to enjoy it). It was still fun seeing how they were made.

Mr. Matilde M. from Canada travelled on 04 Apr 2017

I had a ton of fun! Thank you for the wonderful experience. However, I must say I had a slight bit of trouble finding the meeting point. If there is any way to include a doodle of where to go to meet (since there are so many exits at stations), that would be so helpful for the future.

Mr. Michael H. from USA travelled on 12 Mar 2017

Loved the tour!

Mr. Tom L. from USA travelled on 11 Feb 2017

Seemed a bit rushed.

Mrs. Lynette M. from Australia travelled on 02 Feb 2017

The tour was great! Good food mix and information about Japanese culture. Food was filling and a good variety. Meeting location was a bit hard but that's navigating around Tokyo train stations.

Mr. Jane W. from travelled on 19 Jan 2017

Great tour, great food. Really enjoyed our night.

Ms. Sarah E. from New Zealand travelled on 04 Jan 2017

Silvia was a most excellent guide, enthusiastic and it genuinely showed she wanted her guests to have the be best experience. She managed the large group well and catered to everyones needs, a fabulous evening and the eating places she had chosen were all brilliant.

Mr. Alexander C. from Australia travelled on 29 Dec 2016

Awesome tour fantastic guide, thanks Misa for a wonderful time.

Mr. Azhar M. from Australia travelled on 17 Nov 2016

Really good evening out. Kirihara was really nice and was able to give us an insight into Japanese culture. My wife and I do not eat pork and he was able to arrange for us to still fully engage in the evening. I also contacted him by email and he was very helpful suggesting things to do in Tokyo.

Ms. Anna W. from Australia travelled on 08 Nov 2016

This was a great tour. And my guide was able to accommodate my vegetarian needs very well, which I appreciated greatly.

Mr. Richard B. from Australia travelled on 07 Nov 2016

We had a great time. Excellent food and good company. Meg was a wonderful guide, she made sure we all enjoyed the night.

Mrs. Lisa S. from USA travelled on 07 Nov 2016

We would like to commend Mae and her knowledge of the area and the wonderful food she introduced us to. Mae is a terrific asset to your company.

Ms. Diana M. from Australia travelled on 26 Oct 2016

Fantastic tour letting me see and do things I probably would not have on my own. Delicious food, good company, and just enough information from our host to help things make sense (without overwhelming us with content). It gave me the confidence to seek out more adventurous options during the rest of my stay in Tokyo!

Ms. Stephanie B. from USA travelled on 16 Oct 2016

Meg was an excellent guide. I learned so more than just about the cuisine and areas we visited, I felt that I learned a lot about Tokyo in general. The food was great and we were able to explore areas that we would have never found on our own. I enjoy seeing local spots and how locals spend their time as a nice contrast to the more touristy activities. I'm so happy that we went on this tour, I just wish we did it a day or two earlier so we could take advantage of some of the suggestions brought up by Meg and other travelers in our group.

Mr. Kirsi A. from Australia travelled on 01 Oct 2016

The whole tour was interesting, but the real highlight of the tour was our excellent tour guide Silvia. She told us interesting facts and stories about our tour locations, answered all our questions about Tokyo and Japanese culture, and together with other guests we had really fun discussing about differences between cultures in the world, us visitors being from opposite sides of the globe. I had a very nice evening!

Mr. JUSTIN P. from Australia travelled on 15 Sep 2016

Silvia was a great guide, and we really got a great understanding of the local cuisine! She made some great reccomendations, that I never would have picked for myself, and they were delicious!

Ms. Teresa P. from Australia travelled on 11 Aug 2016

Ikumi was super friendly and professional and looked after us very well. She was the most fun Japanese person I met in Japan and made my holiday much more satisfying because of that.. The tour was really full of interesting information and the food was well chosen.

Ms. Marcie E. from USA travelled on 30 Mar 2016

Meg was a great tour guide. I would highly recommend this tour!

Mr. Juanette O. from USA travelled on 26 Mar 2016

Megan was wonderful! Highly recommend this food tour!

Mrs. Gaynor F. from travelled on 25 Mar 2016

Our guide, Sylvia, was excellent and we had a great night out experiencing Tokyo from a different perspective. The varied choice of food places was great, and we loved the "cooking class" experience when having Okonomiyaki. A great group of people to enjoy it with, too

Mr. Danilo Hipolito V. from Australia travelled on 14 Mar 2016

Overall, the food tour was more than I expected. It was an eye opener for me on Japanese food and culture. This was just the second time I had had Japanese food experience on my first trip to Japan.

Mrs. Maree B. from travelled on 05 Feb 2016

The guide was fantastic !!!!! And the tour was u forgettable. The guide was so good at talking to us and making sure all,our tastes etc were covered . It was absolutely wonderful , one of the best tours I have been on !!! Thank you so much indeed.

Mr. Samir P. from USA travelled on 27 Jan 2016

Excellent food tour. Was highly pleased with Meg's knowledge of the area and cuisine! Would definitely do this again.

Mrs. Deborah E. from Australia travelled on 25 Jan 2016

Ikumi was a friendly and engaging guide who imparted a lot of useful and interesting local information on our tour. She also taught me how to use the Tokyo subway system, something I had been afraid to try until we met. I really enjoyed the tour and found it fun and worthwhile.

Mr. Zachary H. from USA travelled on 12 Jan 2016

Meg was excellent; very professional, knowledgeable and fun to hang out with during the tour.

Ms. Lauren S. from Australia travelled on 05 Jan 2016

The food was delicious and Silvia is an incredible guide. This was a 10 out of 10 experience!

Mr. Joy F. from Australia travelled on 04 Jan 2016

Ms Izumi Matsukura was an excellent guide who spoke very good english. i greatly appreciated her followup message with words she introduced to us, names of places we visited and food we ate. excelllent!!

Ms. Judy L. from Canada travelled on 16 Dec 2015

Tokyo After 5 was a really great way to spend the evening exploring a new city especially if you are on your own. I would definitely do it again. Meg was a EXCELLENT guide. So friendly and informative.

Ms. Susan B. from USA travelled on 29 Nov 2015

Meg, our guide, was fantastic and quite knowledgeable. This was my firsy Urban Adventures tour and I would take another one based on this experience

Ms. Pat D. from Australia travelled on 19 Nov 2015

Tokyo's Cultural Curiosities is a really interesting and varied tour. An excellent way to see some old parts of Tokyo which otherwise would be difficult to find or even know existed. Meg was an outstanding guide - knowledgeable, fun to be with, generous with her time and able to quickly understand my interests. She also gave me some great tips for things to do in the rest of the time I was in Tokyo. Thank you Meg and Urban Adventures. Pat

Mr. Bill M C. from Australia travelled on 16 Nov 2015

Our guide, Ikumi, was very knowledgeable and friendly. We made three different food stops which included yakitori (grilled skewered food), okonomiyaki (savory Japanese pancakes where we cooked it on a grill at our table), and dessert from a sweet shop in Ginza. Food was quite filling and delicious.

We explored a few streets in the Yurakucho area of Tokyo and walked through Ginza during the tour. It was a fun, tasty, and informative way to spend an evening.

Mrs. Jo Anne V. from travelled on 12 Nov 2015

Silvia was a great guide. We really enjoyed the restaurants and seeing Tokyo at night.

Mr. Mitchell D. from USA travelled on 03 Nov 2015

Fab tour -- Meg was fantastic!!

Mr. Peter T. from Australia travelled on 21 Oct 2015

Ikumi was the most friendly, knowledgeable and hospitable guide, her enthusiasm was infectious. Under her guidance, the group became good friends by the end of the night. This was our first night out in Japan, and thanks to Ikumi we had the confidence and love of Japanese food to revisit the areas she had introduced us to. During our all too brief stay we also ventured into other areas of Tokyo and also in Kyoto. Ikumi was also generous in investigating and getting back to us (on her own time) in response to our many other questions. We cannot thank her enough. Ikumi is one of the reasons we will revisit Japan.

Mrs. Nikki D. from Australia travelled on 05 Oct 2015

Was a truly awesome evening with a great group of fellow travellers with some great local interaction. Loved it!

Mr. Maree Q. from Australia travelled on 30 Sep 2015

Meg was an excellent guide/host and was the perfect introduction to our time in Japan - after a few hours we felt well equipped to travel around the city and beyond

Mr. James D. from Australia travelled on 25 Sep 2015

Excellent from start to finish - Silvia was fantastic!

Ms. Venecia B. from Australia travelled on 26 Aug 2015

Meg is a fantastic guide!

Ms. Sarah F. from Australia travelled on 23 Aug 2015

I had a fantastic evening eating Japanese food with Sylvia on the Tokyo food tour. Sylvia was a great guide. Her English was excellent and she knew the city well and could direct us to get home and recommend other places / restaurants to try. Both restaurants were authentic with friendly, welcoming staff. They were also busy with Japanese people eating their which added to the experience. The food was delicious and vegetarians were catered for. I highly recommend this tour :-)

Ms. Alice W. from Australia travelled on 10 Jan 2015

Fantastic way to experience a taste of Tokyo and to try dishes you may not have had the opportunity to try on your own. We thoroughly enjoyed the tour, ate some delicious food and went places .in Tokyo we wouldn't have gone to without someone to lead us. We totally recommend the tour!

Ms. Heather M. from USA travelled on 11 Dec 2014

It was an absolutely amazing tour! Meg was so great and accommodating and the food was absolutely delicious! Highly highly recommend to people visiting Tokyo!

Ms. Michelle L. from Australia travelled on 11 Nov 2014

Sylvia was a fantastic guide. We felt like we were having dinner with a friend. We learnt so much about Japanese food as well! Thank you!

Ms. Emma C. from Australia travelled on 22 Jun 2014

Meg our guide was fantastic! She showed us some really cool places to eat and we had a great time. Definitely do it again.

Ms. Jessica C. from Australia travelled on 06 Apr 2014

If you are wanting to be introduced to the behind the scenes culture of Japan and discover some places you have never seen before this is the best tour to do it with! It really opens your eyes for resturants to check out for the rest of your trip.

Ms. Fiona M. from Australia travelled on 10 Mar 2014

I had a fantastic time on the Tokyo After 5 tour and would recommend it to anyone travelling to Tokyo. My guide Caroline was really knowledgable about Japanese culture and explained all about the food we were eating. We had a great time laughing with the waiters and enjoying the atmosphere in each restaurant. The Yakitori was my favourite - one of the best meals I had in Japan. Thanks Caroline and Urban Adventures!

Natasha C. from Australia travelled on 05 Mar 2014

We thought we were discovering Tokyo but it quickly became apparent we had only been skimming the surface - our guide took us where the 'real' magic happens, walkways down under railway arches we definitely wouldn't have found ourselves to hidden treasures. We thoroughly enjoyed the food, the company, and the cultural experience.

Mr. Derek D. from Australia travelled on 28 Dec 2013

Meg (our guide), was the best guide we have every had in any tour we have done before. She is fantastic. Regards, Derek

Ms. Kristien V. from Australia travelled on 02 Dec 2013

Lovely tour guide, really personable, patient, informative. Had a great time with a nice bunch of people. Restaurants we were taken to were clean and the food delicious.

Mr. Keith V. from Australia travelled on 17 Nov 2013

This was a brilliant experience. Kiri is an amazing ambassador for Japan. We would gladly do this tour again, it was one of the highlights of our whole trip.